A new fruit now being marketed to Sydney eaters is Achacha (Garcinia humulis), a native of the Bolivian Amazon.
Grown in North Queensland, the fruit is about two-thirds of a finger length in size and is eaten raw after removing the yellow skin. In taste, the soft white flesh is sweet, with a tang that is and reminiscent of magenta lillypilly (Syzygium paniculatum), though much milder.
Achacha fruit
BIG MARKETING EFFORT
Marketers were encountered in January at fruit and vege shops in Sydney, offering a taste and information on the fruit. A small paper carry bag provided to take away your achacha in carried information about it.
The marketing indicates the scale of the effort being made to create a market for what appears to be a new fruit in the shops.
The information provided claims that the fruit is ‘eco-friendly’, however the actual meaning of this remains unexplained.
Achacha fruit peeled and ready to eat.
NOT THE FIRST NEW FRUIT
Other, less common fruits that might appeal to a segment of the fruit eating market have appeared from time to time.
One such is loquat, a tasty, round fruit found in Sydney home gardens where it’s production often goes unused and where it can become a vector for the perpetuation of fruit fly.
Another is dragon fruit, which is the fruit of a cactus. Then there are the berry fruits — blueberry, raspberry etc.
These have all added to the diversity of fruit available to the public.
PACKAGING COULD GENERATE BUYER RESISTANCE
These less-common fruits can be a little pricey at times, however the real disadvantage that marketers and retailers have yet to come to terms with is packaging waste. All of these products come packaged in foam punnets covered in plastic film — waste, other words, that persists in landfill.
To a increasingly waste-aware public, this could create buyer resistance to an otherwise good product. Perhaps marketers might look to the new, biodegardable and compostable bioplastics now becoming available (see: http://pacific-edge.info/bioplastics/) as these are made from plant material themselves and may be more acceptable to discerning buyers interested in the fill lifecycle values of the fruits and their packaging.
Information: www.achacha.com.au
I love this Achacha fruit and really would appreciate to find it more frequently and of course cheaper. In order to reduce waste, it should be possible to ship it in bigger foam punnets. I also like the idea to use natural materials like coconut fibres – which are also produced in quantities in Bolivia, origen country of Achacha.